Customer reviews: Walking in Germany

Here at Headwater we thrive on feedback from our customers. It's the only way we can continue to develop and, where necessary, improve our services and ensure our walking holidays continue to be the best they can be.

Eveyone who travels with Headwater will be emailed a link to our post-holiday questionnaire where they can give us an honest assesment of all aspects of their walking holiday - everything from how quickly we answer the phone to how clean the hotels were - plus, of course, an overall rating and comments about their walking holiday.

Any feedback collected is posted straight to our website - totally unedited. So, for the real tales, twists and turns of our holidays, look no further than the reviews from our previous travellers.

Bavaria is a wonderful destination, the walking is excellent. Oberammergau and the nearby villages are a delight, in June the meadows are a joy to behold. My limited German was a help as in some restaurants and bars, there was limited English, and even then the local accent was tricky, (but Apfel strudel is good in any language).

We found the Bavarian countryside quite fascinating. Everything was good, the scenery, the walks, the accommodation and food. We also met interesting people who were also on the holiday as we usually do. Earlier this month we had a twenty year re-union with four friends we met on one of your holidays in Corsica.

Landhaus Feldmeier exceeded expectations- an excellent room with plenty of seating and a balcony. Veggie food better than expected. Excellent and varied walking with options increased by good local public transport (rail and bus). A longish and not especially pleasant taxi ride to/ from Munich (no criticism of drivers).
Hotel Opera was rather odd. Service was excellent - there seemed to be almost as many staff as guests. However, the room was rather weird and a bit shabby/ dirty (e.g. stained bright mustard carpet and grubby bed trim) and I found the hotel a bit pretentious. The location was excellent though with easy access to the city centre and the English Gardens.

We (3, 60 something adults) had a good walking holiday in the Oberammagau area. The walks were varied, well graded and easy to modify as one cared to, and dependent on weather. Also plenty of other places to visit and experience. For eg, we chose one day to go to Zugspitz using the local bus, cog train and cable car and then walk around the Eibsee, about 7km, with spectacular views. An excellent add on. Accommodation at Landhaus Feldmeier was ok. We had upgraded to a deluxe room out the back which was great. Food generally good, certainly plenty of it, but we would have liked side vegetables/salad with the main courses. Some confusion in arrangements: no car to pick us up from Munich airport, and no record at hotel of our upgrading to comfort room: both issues sorted very promptly by Headwater / manager. Gift bottle of good red appreciated. Highest level of excitement was on our way to Oberammagau: 160km/hr in our replacement taxi, a Toyota Prius, with driver fiddling with his phone Sat Nav.

Helpful Headwater staff who made planning and booking our holiday easy. Oberammergau is a wonderful location, Hotel Feldmeier was excellent with friendly, helpful staff. As well as the fantastic scenery and walks there is plenty to see and do in the town. Free bus pass made it easy to get to nearby towns. Also good rail connections from the local station.

An excellent holiday. Lovely sunshine and masses of flowers in the meadows made it especially beautiful. The walks were very varied and there were some interesting places to visit en route and on any non walking day(s). A very good centre.

A great holiday with varied walking options available, Village had great atmosphere and opportunities for shopping and sightseeing away from just walking. We extended our trip with 3 nights in Munich at the hotel recommended by Headwater which was a super place and gave us chance for a bit of culture and city life after the scenery!

We were very happy with the holiday from the headwater point of view. Accomodation i would not be happy with.Compared to other places we visited in the area the level of english spoken in this hotel was very poor,even when we asked what something was on the menu ,the waitress didnt understand us .Thank you for the bottle of wine which we appreciated very much.the walking was superb and the guides provided for the walking were very good. Beautiful country and people were very friendly and most helpful.

Good. But the food was uninspired, with too much use of factory-made sauces. The deserts were dull - ice-cream almost every evening. No fruit available at breakfast and the yoghurt was definitely 'off' on one day. Staff nice but their English very limited - it is incorrect to say that the family speak the language.

Bavaria is very nice and very green because it rains a lot! Apart from that we had a good time, but Oberammergau is a bit isolated and it's best to take your car if you can, although local transport is very good.

The 'superior' accommodation really was very good indeed. The local tax a bit of a surprise at the end of the week - if it is mentioned, then you should emphasise it more. The walks and interest are excellent, and the notes worked well, because the paths, signposts and surfaces are so good. We have usually gone to Italy or France with you - and German food is a bit of a shock, in its solidity and calorie count.

This was our first holiday with Headwater as we normally organise our holidays ourselves. We will definitely consider another Headwater holiday in the future, as the local knowledge was invaluable, the walks just great (and appropriate for our level), and the hotel was excellent (the request for vegetarian food didn't seem to have reached the hotel but it wasn't a problem, and the chef made up delicious veggie dishes specially each day). We found that the premium that Headwater provides over self-organised holidays is well worth the extra cost: it saved us substantial planning time and made logistics easy, so that we could focus on the more important business of enjoying a great walking holiday. Thank you!

Excellent holiday. Covered everything, good walking at your own level and pace, good food in the area, and a good few places of interest on your doorstep to mix with your walking or do on their own.
Easy to use local transport, train, bus and ski lift - even if your German is very limited.

Very quiet comfortable and clean family run hotel in good location. Convenient for public transport and ice creams after a day's walking. A very good selection of walks, suitable for all abilties. We just needed longer to complete them all!

Everything went smoothly with travel arrangements on outward and inward journeys.. Standard of food was exceptional for *** hotel. Would have appreciated a kettle in bedroom to make tea/coffee and fill hot water bottle. Very enjoyable holiday. Maps and information all very helpful and accurate.

Our holiday was well organised and the hotel was comfortable and friendly. The walks were well chosen and the self-guiding notes were informative and easy to follow. The only slightly disappointing aspect as the weather; it rained on most days, so I would advise potential travellers to be prepared for wet weather - especially early in the season.

Oberammergau is a lovely location from which to base a walking holiday. We were fortunate to have sunshine nearly all week (21-28 Sept), and made the most it by doing many of the walks provided in the Headwater literature. The most exhilarating being Sonnenberg Ridge linked to The Kofel - quite possible in a single day, although the advice in the walking notes regarding narrow ledges and cables need to be carefully considered. The local buses, trains and chair lift are all easily accessed and efficient. The hotel owner gave us a discount card for use with the buses and lifts. The food was cooked to perfection, but not very inspirational.

Fantastic week 5th-12th July 2013 enjoyed all the walks best ones were the difficult route on the sonnenberg ridge, chair lift closed also path to start of walk closed due
to cycle race so had to walk to start of walk well worth it.High over the Hornle was also a good walk with fantastic views. Good food all week for the humble vegetarian.
Staff at the hotel were very helpful and friendly.

Oberammergau was an ideal location for our walking holiday, every day we walked somewhere different which made it interesting.
The public transport was easy to use, particularly the train and the walk from the hotel to the train station was a reasonable difference.
The 4 course evening meal at the hotel was very good value and extremely tasty.

A major reason that our holiday only scores 'Fair' overall is we would prefer to walk at higher altitude. We chose Oberammergau when we could not afford our preferred destination without really studying its altitude and that of the walks.
Also we were unlucky with both the weather and a stairlift being out commission, which ruled out getting to some of the highest walking readily available.
That's not to say we didn't enjoy Oberammergau. We enjoyed being able to walk into town for a drink or a coffee. Not so keen on the woodcarving!
The walking is good on its own terms.

It was good,but not quite as good as our holiday last year at Gstaad in Switzerland. The language was a bit of a problem, we don't speak any german and communicating with the staff was sometimes not easy. The food was good and tasty but options were a bit repetitive. But we did enjoy it!

Disappointing, we have previously utilised other walking holiday companies our expectations of Headwater as a leading agent in this field were not realised. We would not consider this holiday to be value for money.

Headwater response

Dear Mr Munday, following on from our conversation last week, I would again like to thank you for taking the time to contact us with your feedback and hope that our discussion has restored your faith in Headwater. As discussed, all points raised have been passed on to the hotel, in order that improvements can be made, where possible. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to look into these matters.
To answer the questions within your feedback, for the benefit of future guests, I can confirm that the hotel restaurant is closed on Tuesdays- this can be found on page 11 of our 'Germany notes booklet'.
This holiday is managed locally by the hotelier, this information is found on the brochure pages for each holiday - on the 'dates and prices' panel, under 'holiday type'. Herr Feldmeier the hotelier is always on hand to answer any questions you may have.
Kind regards, Melanie

Oberammergau is a wonderful base for varying levels of walk. The town is beautiful, picturesque and immaculate. the whole area is worth visiting. The trains and buses are excellent and efficient. Unfortunately we did not feel welcome at the Hotel Feldmeier. On arrival Frau Feldmeier was brusque and uninformative. I was a German teacher and had no difficulty at all with the language but she made no effort to communicate. I had to ask for a change of room as our original room was directly onto the main road and was extremely noisy at night. Our second room was tiny. The safe was broken and when I pointed this out she was quite indifferent. She asked us to pay our bill the evening before we left which we were quite happy to do but when my partner tried to pay she looked at him and said 'Ten minutes' and then turned away and spoke to someone else. Throughout the holiday she was at best brusque and at worst downright rude. I would like to add, however that her sister and the rest of the staff were helpful and friendly but I could not recommend this hotel to anyone.

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